The Screen Savers

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This article is about the TV show. For the computer application, see screen saver.
The Screen Savers
Format News/Documentary, Talk Show
Starring Leo Laporte
Kate Botello
Patrick Norton
Kevin Rose
Alex Albrecht
Sarah Lane
Country of origin  United States
Language(s) English
Production
Executive producer(s) Paul Block (2001 - 2004)
Jim Downs (2004)
Producer(s) Joshua Brentano
Kelly Gavin
Running time 90 minutes during early seasons
60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel ZDTV, TechTV
Original run May 11, 1998 – March 18, 2005
Chronology
Related shows Attack of the Show!
Tekzilla
External links
Official website

The Screen Savers (broadcast May 11, 1998 – March 18, 2005) was a live American TV show on TechTV. The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV (later known as TechTV) on May 11, 1998. The Screen Savers originally centered around computers, new technologies, and their adaptations in the world. However, after it was taken over by G4, the show became more general-interest oriented and focused somewhat less on technology. The final episode of The Screen Savers aired on March 18, 2005. Repeat episodes continued to air until March 25, 2005 when its replacement program, Attack of the Show! began 3 days later on March 28, 2005. A spiritual successor produced and hosted by former 'Screen Savers' Patrick Norton and Roger Chang launched in 2007 on Revision3 called Tekzilla.

Contents

[edit] History

The original San Francisco set
The remodeled San Francisco set

[edit] 1998–2000

The Screen Savers premiered on May 11, 1998 as part of ZDTV. It aired live from San Francisco, California. Originally hosted by Leo Laporte and Kate Botello, the show featured a large and continually changing group of contributors.

[edit] 2000–2001

In April, 2000, Kate Botello left the show. Patrick Norton took her spot, and he and Laporte hosted the show for much of its run. A few months after Botello left, ZDTV became TechTV.

For much of its run, The Screen Savers had a running time of 60 minutes. This was later changed to 90 minutes (the expansion coming with the advent of the 'TechLive' all-day news format in 2001), but was reduced back to its original length due to scheduling conflicts and the difficulty of creating enough content for a 90-minute program.

[edit] 2002–2003

In 2002, the show built a new set and designed a new logo and graphics. The new set was much larger and brighter than the previous "basement" set. The new set offered more room for the studio audience, application-specific areas, a dedicated LAN Party section, and a new lab for Yoshi.

[edit] 2004–2005

2004 was an important year for The Screen Savers. Laporte left The Screen Savers to focus on hosting Call for Help, and Kevin Rose took his spot. Soon after Comcast bought TechTV in order to merge it with their struggling gaming channel G4, the TechTV offices were hit with massive layoffs affecting over 200 personnel. G4 moved the show to their studios in Los Angeles, California. The first Los Angeles based episode aired on September 7, 2004. Norton declined to move with the show, opting to remain in San Francisco with his new wife. Alex Albrecht took his spot. On November 11, 2004, Kevin Rose, Sarah Lane, and Alex Albrecht announced on their personal blogs that G4 had decided to revamp The Screen Savers by making it more pop culture, Internet, and gaming-oriented. Alex Albrecht, Yoshi DeHerrera, Dan Huard, executive producer Paul Block and the show's entire staff (comprised mostly of TechTV employees) either resigned, made separation deals with G4, or were officially terminated. After the layoffs, the show changed formats, leaving computer and technology-focused content and adopting a gaming and entertainment variety show style that presented gaming and technology related news, product demonstrations, software clinics, interviews with notable people, live music, and such original segments as Dark Deals, Gems of the Internet, and It Came from eBay.

New episodes of the revamped show, which would later become Attack of the Show!, began on November 29, 2004; without a live studio audience. Kevin Pereira and Chi-Lan Lieu took over hosting duties. Chi-Lan later left G4 and was replaced as co-host briefly by Sarah Lane and finally by Kevin Rose. The final hosts of The Screen Savers were Kevin Rose and Kevin Pereira. The show's executive producer was Jim Downs.

The Los Angeles set

[edit] Cancellation

On March 17, 2005, the cast announced that on March 28, 2005, The Screen Savers would officially end. The first episode of the officially titled Attack of the Show! aired on March 28, 2005. (See 2005 in television)

[edit] Format

Each show began with a short commentary on the day's technology-related news stories, sometimes accompanied by an online poll. This was followed by a call for help from a viewer, either through telephone or netcam. Early in the show's run, this was followed by Leo's Boot Camp, designed to help people who were new to computers. More calls were answered throughout the show, along with a variety of segments. These included various interviews, coverage of special events, The Twisted List, Site of the Night, and Download of the Day. As each show came to an end, questions sent in by email were answered. For part of the show's run, quotations sent in from viewers were read at this time.

[edit] Segments

Here are a few of the many segments which appeared on The Screen Savers.

  • "Bit Chat"
  • "Dark Deals"
  • "Dark Tips"
  • "Download of the Day"
  • "Live Calls"
  • "Photoshop Challenge"
  • "Show and Tell"
  • "Site of the Nite"
  • "Talkback"
  • "The Screen Savers LAN Party"
  • "Twisted List"
  • "Windows Tips"
  • "Windows Tweaks"
  • "Yoshi's Mods"
  • "Mac Minute"
  • "Geek Library"

[edit] Hosts

[edit] Final hosts

Some of the final hosts of The Screen Savers were:

  • Sarah Lane: Sarah became co-host when Chi-Lan Lieu decided to lessen her involvement with the show. She, Kevin Rose, and Brendan Moran were the only on-air talent from TechTV still featured on the show. She left G4 and Attack of the Show! on April 6, 2006.
  • Brendan Moran: Brendan left, along with Sarah, on April 6, 2006.
  • Kevin Pereira: Kevin continues to host Attack of the Show, along with Olivia Munn.
  • Kevin Rose: Currently part of several online IPTV tech projects along with former TechTV employees, such as Revision3. Kevin is also founder and chief architect of the social news site Digg. He left G4 and Attack of the Show! in May 2005.

[edit] Previous hosts and supporting members

Former hosts and supporting members included:

  • Alex Albrecht: Alex joined The Screen Savers as co-host on the first G4techTV episode airing from Los Angeles. He was terminated on November 11, 2004. His last episode aired November 10, 2004. Alex now co-hosts the vidcasts Diggnation and The Totally Rad Show, both distributed through Revision3 as well as Project Lore.
  • Kate Botello: Kate left the show to co-host Extended Play with Adam Sessler. She also co-hosted a TechTV video on computer basics with Chris Pirillo. Kate currently lives in Traverse City, Michigan, where she owns and operates a web design company.
  • Jessica Corbin: Jessica left the show after the merger hosted Love's a Trip[1], a reality TV show on Style as well as cohosted most of the 26 episodes of InDigital a vidcast production of Revision3. For short periods she also hosted, Tekzilla, The Digg Reel andPopSiren also onRevision3.
  • Yoshi DeHerrera: Yoshi was the show's modding guru. He was terminated on November 11, 2004. His last episode aired November 10, 2004.
  • Dan Huard: Dan was terminated on November 11, 2004. His last episode aired November 10, 2004. He has hosted the on-hiatus thebroken vidcast with Revision3 and works full time at Digg.
  • Leo Laporte: Leo left the show on April 1, 2004. He was the host of The Lab with Leo Laporte on G4techTV Canada in Canada and How To Channel in Australia, until the series was cancelled in Canada, and pulled from the schedule in Australia. He also has his own technology talk radio show on Premiere Radio Networks (previously exclusive to KFI AM 640), as well as being the host of numerous podcasts, most notably this WEEK in TECH. He has also started an internet broadcasting network, streaming 25+ hours of new video content each week. This network is called TWiT.tv.
  • Chi-Lan Lieu: Chi-Lan co-hosted The Screen Savers with Kevin Pereira for a short time in December 2004. She was replaced as co-host by Sarah Lane in January 2005 and has since announced her departure from G4 on her personal blog.
  • Megan Morrone: Megan left the show to have a baby. She co-hosted a weekly podcast with Leo Laporte on the This Week In Tech network called Jumping Monkeys. This podcast is said to be on hiatus until sometime in 2009[2].
  • Patrick Norton: Patrick left the show after the merger so as to not be transferred to Los Angeles, as he had recently married. He hosted an internet tech show called DL.TV, which he left as of August 2, 2007 to join Revision3. He is currently the co-host of Revision3's Systm and Tekzilla with Veronica Belmont.
  • Martin Sargent: Martin left the show to host his own late night variety show on TechTV: Unscrewed with Martin Sargent. His last episode on The Screen Savers was May 23, 2003, with the exception of making a few appearances on the show in 2004. Unscrewed with Martin Sargent was cancelled on November 11, 2004 and Sargent was terminated shortly after. He then moved onto Revision3 where he produced, Webdrifter[3], Infected[4] and Internet Superstar. He was laid off as part of cut backs at Revision3 in 2008 and is currently the host, along with Sarah Lane, in a podcast called This Week in Fun, which is currently hosted on the TWiT.tv network.
  • Cat Schwartz: Cat left the show to co-host Call for Help and eventually left G4techTV in August 2004.
  • Morgan Webb: Morgan left the show in April 2003 to co-host X-Play with Adam Sessler. In late 2007, she also launched a tech news vidcast called Webbalert[5]. It is a short summary of the day's tech news.
  • Scott Herriott: Scott appeared in the House Call's segment and demonstrated technology in his search for Bigfoot.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Loves's a Trip
  2. ^ Jumping Monkeys
  3. ^ Webdrifter
  4. ^ Infected
  5. ^ Webbalert

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screen_Savers"